


rebel children

by rangerhitomi



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Team XYZ, XYZ Dimension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 10:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3287633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>there is nothing fun about not knowing if your friends and loved ones are dead. there’s nothing fun about this hunting game for anyone but the hunters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	rebel children

It’s a routine mission; shutting down the wireless broadcasting station is a quick job. Get in, cut a few wires, maybe gas a few security guards, and enjoy watching the Fusionists spend a week trying to get their Pro-Fusion brainwashing propaganda back online.

Nothing to it.

Ruri pulls down her face mask, steps over a sleeping guard, and pushes through the door to the roof, pausing long enough to survey the condition of the city. Yuto is close behind.

“They’re in sectors one and six,” he whispers into his communicator, eyes sweeping over the Fusionists’ helicopters patrolling the city.

There’s a slight pause before a garbled affirmative. “As scheduled. You’ve got about three minutes before the scheduled shift change.”

Ruri looks up at Yuto. Her eyes are deeply shadowed. This war has made her almost unrecognizable. He wonders how she sees him now. “More than enough time.”

They slip onto the roof, Ruri fumbling in her pouch for some tools as they approach the transmitting beacon. She tosses Yuto a wrench and he goes to work loosening the bolts holding the plate in place.

“Two-thirty.” Shun’s voice is tense.

“Shut up,” Ruri grumbles, but she moves a little faster. There’s a _clang_ that sounds more reminiscent of a gunshot going off as the plate cover clatters to the rooftop. Ruri tenses, one hand on her duel disk. Five seconds pass. Nothing happens. She relaxes an inch.

Yuto tosses her the wrench and pulls out a pair of wire cutters. He’s careful to completely remove the wires, not just disable them; with the city in shambles it’s so much harder to get new wiring than it is to replace frayed ones. Plus, the Resistance could always use the wires.

“Time?” he breathes.

“One-twenty five.”

Ruri’s still holding her duel disk, hunched over on one knee. Her eyes are fixed on the helicopters circling the Heartland Tower.

 _No,_ Yuto reminds himself, snapping his attention back to his task, _it’s the_ Leo _Tower now, isn’t it._

He still doesn’t know who the Fusionists are or what they want, just that destroying the city seems to be a giant game of hide-and-seek. They hunt Heartlandians down, take them back to… that place, that place that used to be the symbol of hope for children and adults in Heartland, who only wanted to have fun. He and Ruri and Shun – they all went to the same school, hung out, built decks together, dueled, had fun.

But now… _there is nothing fun about not knowing if your friends and loved ones are dead. There’s nothing fun about this hunting game for anyone but the hunters._

Shun hadn’t smiled since that day.

“Thirty seconds, Yuto.”

Yuto is so lost in his own thoughts that he clips the wrong wire.

All the lights in the entire sector go out.

_Shit._

“Yuto, what the hell hap—“

The helicopters circling Heartland Tower turn instantly on the darkened sector, their blinding spotlights searching out the source of the outage. Yuto can’t move; he’s frozen in terror, because the Fusionists…

There’s a slow rumble in the streets.

Ruri’s pulling at his arm, hissing at him to move, and finally she gets him on his feet. They sprint back to the door of the roof just as a spotlight lands on them. Yuto’s legs are moving on autopilot; he hears the voice spitting through the city speakers, alerting the Fusion soldiers – God, some of those soldiers are children! _We're only children!_  – that there are _Xyz scum_ there.

An explosion rocks the foundation, and Yuto is thrown into the wall.

He blacks out for a second. There’s pain in every inch of his body, from the back of his head through his tailbone and his knees; he hears a garbled voice in his head, calling his name. His already torn sleeve is ripped in half now. He doesn’t know if that’s smoke from a fire or from the dust or if he’s imagining the gray cloud in the air, he can’t tell if his eyes are even open, if he can even see, if he’s dizzy or imagining things or—

“Ruri,” he rasps, dragging himself on his elbows because his legs are struggling, and _oh God, where is she_ , she’s not answering, he can’t see her, he can’t feel her anywhere in the rubble.

“—to!”

_…Shun…?_

Shun’s voice cuts out in a static haze and Yuto feels for the wall, drags himself to his feet. His knees nearly give out on him. He has to find Ruri. He has to find… Ruri… she was right next to him. She was right… there…

There’s a blinding flash of light, a scream, and an unfamiliar voice yelling, laughing.

“Third floor!” The voice carries a high-pitched, singsong tone. It sounds too close for comfort. “Found her!”

There’s more laughter, some cheers. Yuto is paralyzed. Do they know he’s here? Do they see him?

“I’ll take this one back,” another voice offers, and the first protests.

 _I caught her,_ _it counts for me,_ it sounds like, and Yuto slides down the wall again. He can’t breathe.

He can’t… think…

* * *

 

There’s a pair of hands pulling at him. An arm slings around his waist. Yuto sees the coat first, tightly wrapped around what he knows is a uniform belonging to a Heartland third year. There’s a red cloth tied around his rescuer’s face.

“Shun…” he whispers.

Shun doesn’t speak; he pulls Yuto through the rubble. Yuto can’t focus his gaze but he does his best to move his legs in the direction Shun takes him. They make it outside in an alleyway filled with rubble and smoke from the collapsing building, and Shun activates his duel disk.

“Stay here,” Shun says, “I’m going back to find Ruri.”

“Shun,” Yuto wheezes, and he slumps against the wall, “she’s not… there.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Shun begins, but there’s a flash of light and they turn to see a figure sitting on a motorcycle. A smaller figure is behind them, draped over the seat.

“Ruri,” Shun whispers.

There’s a grin on the rider’s face, clearly visible under the eye shield.

“You—“

Shun reaches for his deck, but the figure waves cordially and disappears into the night, bike roaring in the silence.

Yuto grabs onto the hem of Shun’s coat as he tries to chase the rider down.

“Let go!” Shun screams, but Yuto shakes his head because he can’t let his best friend disappear like all the others. “They have Ruri! Yuto, _let go_!” He struggles against Yuto – Yuto understands; Ruri is Shun’s only sister, his only remaining family – but there’s no point in chasing them down, because the rider is on his way to Akaba Leo, and God only knows what will become of her there. It is the one place in the city that no resistance reconnaissance team has ever managed to escape from.

Shun falls to his knees with a strangled yell, fists slamming into the concrete, and Yuto’s arms are wrapped around his waist. He can feel Shun crying, and he cries because Shun is the strongest man he knows, and now he's broken.

“They have… Ruri…” Shun leans back into Yuto’s arms, grabs Yuto by the loose-hanging tie, the only recognizable piece of his old school uniform.

He wears it to remind himself that his life was once worth living.

 _It was my fault,_ Yuto wants to say, but Shun pulls his face into Yuto’s chest and shakes, and Yuto can’t, so all he can do is wrap his arms around Shun’s shoulders and cry with him.


End file.
